Profile of Afam Osigwe, new NBA President-elect

In this post, News360 Nigeria chronicles the profile of Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, the President-elect of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

Afam Osigwe, SAN, is senior advocate of Nigeria and former general secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association who has emerged as the president-elect of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

He was conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in December 2020.

Background

Afam Osigwe was born on the 25th of October 1972.

After earning his degree from the University of Nigeria’s Enugu campus in 1997, he was admitted to the bar in 1999.

He also has an LL.M. in (Transnational Commercial Practice) from the Centre for International Legal Studies, Austria, which she obtained in partnership with Lazarsky University, Poland.

Career

In 1999, he began his legal career at the Abuja office of Chike Chigbue and Co., but he left in 2002 to found LAW FORTE (Legal Practitioners, Corporate Consultants and Notary Public).

He joined the Nigerian Supreme Court as a Notary Public in 2006. After completing an in-person course at Keble College in Oxford in 2010, he was awarded a Diploma in International Commercial Arbitration.

In 2011, he was elected as a Fellow of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

He completed an in-person course at Keble College in Oxford in 2010 and earned a diploma in international commercial arbitration.

In 2011, Afam was elected as a Fellow of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

At the University of Jos, he graduated with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 2007.

Over the years, Afam has been called upon to conduct legal research and litigation in a number of areas, including corporate and business law, intellectual property, land law, banking law, international commercial law, telecommunications, energy, oil, and gas law, domestic arbitration, and international commercial arbitration.

He has a particular preference for litigation and business and financial practices. He serves as a legal advisor and company secretary for numerous businesses.

Afam has maintained relationships with a few Nigerian law firms, with whom it has occasionally communicated on matters of international business law that have come up while it has been assisting clients with legal needs.

Afam has represented parties in numerous arbitration proceedings and served as a lone arbitrator or panelist on arbitral tribunals for business disputes. He is avid reader and researcher.

Positions held

He had the honor of serving on the following committees of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja Branch, as a member of the NBA Abuja Branch:

• From 2003 to 2005, the NBA Abuja Law Reporting Committee.
• The 2004 NBA Abuja Bar Dinner and Awards Committee.
• Secretary, Committee on Continuing Legal Education (2004–06).
• Secretary, Committee on Continuing Legal Education, 2008–2010.
•  NBA Abuja Branch hosted the NEC’s alternate chairman for the LOC in June 2011.
• A substitute chairman of the LOC for the yearly general conference in 2012.
• Co-opted to the 2012 NBA Annual General Conference TCPC membership.
• Attending NBA Annual General Conferences as an Ex-Officio Member TCPC in 2015 and 2016.
• He also served in the Committee for the Review of the FCT’s High Court’s Civil Procedure Rules from 2011 to the present and the Committee on the Review of ADR Laws and Rules, established in 2011 and ongoing.

Professional bodies

Afam holds associate memberships in the American Bar Association, the Nigerian Institute of Management, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), and the Institute of Chartered Mediators & Conciliators in addition to his membership in the International Bar Association.

He is a Knight of Saint Christopher.

Private life

Afam is married to his university sweetheart, Ukamaka Osigwe, LL.M (Turin) and the union is blessed with three children, Chilbuzor, Chiemelie and Chidumebi.

In addition, he serves as a foster father to Amarachukwu, the daughter of his deceased older brother.

Amongst his hobbies are Reading, research, writing, sightseeing, and photography